I was approached by my roommate today about how her daughter mentioned me playing FFXI the past few days as well as XIV during the beta. She is a 9 year old slightly-more-than-casual-gamer-as-long-as-she-is-playing-with-someone type of girl. My instant reaction was that XI would be a bit much for her. XI was designed and built for the older Everquest-era of MMO and while she may enjoy randomly slaying things, actual toon development and game progression she may not like as much. My roommate mentioned that her daughter, who for all intents and purposes might as well be my daughter, liked me playing XIV on the TV and liked how it looked very LotR movie-esque when I was fighting. In considering this, I thought that XIV would lend a little better to her as it's questing and overall accessibility was a bit more in line with someone her age.

This is all coming from someone who can't really tell you when the last time I was 9. What do you younger folk and new parents think? How is 9 years old for XIV? XI? Do kids that young play these games? Any suggestions if the consensus is to introduce her to it? Should I not for fear of it being too complicated?

To me it's a really simple game. Then again I've been playing FFXI for ages. Anything seems easy.

This is what I believe when it comes to gaming and parenting. Its the parents job to moderate what their child plays. Honestly I do not see to much wrong, it is fantasy violence after all. This game to me is not that hard but I am a avid gamer and played many MMOs over my life time too. I say as long she supervised, I couldn't see what wrong with. The catch 22 is there is sometimes a community that can be harsh and quite rude (thats putting it lightly) if she were to play with other people on the net.

In a supervised situation I think it's fine. If Mom/Dad are in the linkshell and other LS members are aware of the age of the player and know to keep it family friendly, it's okay. XI has a built in censor for swearing, and mom/dad can blacklist anyone on that account that is a known bad apple. It seems ARR has the same tools.

Now, unsupervised..... no. For one thing it's technically against the law for an unsupervised kid under 13 to do anything online. That includes ARR. For another thing, there are some really .... uh.... colorful people in any online game that are probably best avoided.

Now, the text in ARR actually has a lot more profanity in it than XI did. The NA localizers made the language pretty salty. If you're trying to keep a nine year old from cursing like a sailor, ARR might be a bit much. If you trust the kid to not repeat every bad word she hears, then it should be fine.

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FFXI: Catwho on Bismarck: Retired December 2014

Thayos wrote:

I can't understand anyone who skips the cutscenes of a Final Fantasy game. That's like going to Texas and not getting barbecue.

In terms of difficulty should be fine, lots of kids at that age can play a game well, just give them guidance.

In terms of MMO addiction though, as long as you put limits on how much they play that's fine I think, my little brother started video games younger and is still able to pace himself. But even though I started games later than him, I never had any one to teach me to pace myself and for many years it consumed too much of my time.

So I think pacing is all you need, kids will play games anyways, but have them plan it out like, a level a day or a few quests a day, don't encourage their competitiveness too much, "like I wanna be the highest level or the best gear", it's good to have goals but just say "well those guys are adults and when you're 18 you can do whatever you want too, but you're 9 now" - and hopefully by the time she's 18 she'll have more sense than play games all day >_>

I think she could pick it up and play it easier than you'd imagine. Complexity won't be the problem. Just remember that the chat channels are basically an open conduit for tons of things you may not want a 9 year old to be seeing that early. The first time she sees someone get called a rimjob online and comes inquiring of its meaning, you may regret the decision to let her play.

That sounds like a sarcastic answer, but I mean it sincerely. The content nor complexity of the game itself will not be a problem in my opinion. The problem will be the exposure to all the random crap that flies around mmo general/shout/region chat channels. Just my $0.02.

The game is rated T for Teen. I think 9 might be a little young for FFXIV honestly. I mean, if she wants to watch you play and what not, and maybe occasionally play for a couple minutes I'd say that's fine, but really I think it's just a bit too early an age to be getting involved in an mmo. You just can't control what other people are going to say or do.

The game is rated T for Teen. I think 9 might be a little young for FFXIV honestly. I mean, if she wants to watch you play and what not, and maybe occasionally play for a couple minutes I'd say that's fine, but really I think it's just a bit too early an age to be getting involved in an mmo. You just can't control what other people are going to say or do.

Could you not close or get rid of the chat box? if that were possible it does eliminate that problem though.

But the MMO world can be a cruel and dark place in the chat box. That would be my biggest concern with child that young playing an MMO.

If you want though you could seek out alternative MMOs based toward younger children. I am not sure if there any but it does not hurt to look as well.

My kid is 6 and he plays but mostly it's just completing the hunting logs and stuff out in the field. He's surprisingly good at the game for his age. Since he's just learning to read, I keep the chat on battle....not that he would ever know the difference. I can definitely understand the concerns though....can never be too safe these days.

Basically its a bad idea, first you got cyber bullies now. People who go out of their way to bully and people do the "ho hum its part of life" This lead to alot of youth sucidices.

ypou then have pedophiles and the ill. There have been quit a few cases from WoW about young kids getting stalked irl from people they met in WoW. I recall one near me where he goes to the kids house points a gun at the mom and demands nude pics of her son.

And simply put we are not here to play babysitter. On little big planet (a game parents let their kids play online alone) I heard 10 year olds (on voice chat) talk about how they "banged their girlfriend".

Then there was that christain dad 7 year old **** incident.

What i find funny is how people talk about lil kids, 9 year olds are not babies.... i've been gaming since 6 and i'm 28 now.

9 year olds should be running around and playing with other kids...you know, being socially active outside instead of playing video games in front of a computer or tv. I don't have kids of my own, and it is your kid so you can raise him/her however you want. Just stating my humble opinion.

just fyi not all kids xcan do that,I played games due to having ADD inb the early 90s and was medicated with ritlan. I halso have a few other things. Gaming is better them tv and actually can help corrdination skills

pretty much growing up for me was i was numb to the world you couldn't pay me to talk. I wasn't shy i just didn't care. Not to sound cockey... i got along with teachers bettere then my classmates due to my maturity level was a bit higher.

Just copy and paste Catwho's response for me. My wife and I play with our son (almost 7). He only plays when we play and that only a few hours a week. We have plenty of RL activities. We look at FFXIV as our "Family game night". I worry more about the stuff he sees and hears on YouTube. Those kids on the Minecraft videos swear too much.

I personally disgree with letting children under the age of 14 play MMOs due to the presence of people who intentionally try to hurt others because of the anonymity of the internet and the lack of repercussions. That said, I also think it really does need to evaluated on a case to case basis because some children are more mature than others but regardless of that, there needs to be parental involvment at all times with the child is online.

I personally disgree with letting children under the age of 14 play MMOs due to the presence of people who intentionally try to hurt others because of the anonymity of the internet and the lack of repercussions. That said, I also think it really does need to evaluated on a case to case basis because some children are more mature than others but regardless of that, there needs to be parental involvment at all times with the child is online.

Its sad that we live in a world that people would intentionally hurt each other emotionally and think its funny.THose are the people that really make me hate MMOs and ruin the game for me.

I have a 12 year old daughter that has been playing cod with me since she was 8-9 years old. She only is allowed to play with my clan mates and they know to be on their best behavior when she is around.

I think if supervised it is a great idea. As long as school stays in order and she doesn't get sucked into it to much, don't see the problem....

I know right now some people are going to have issues with what I'm going to type, but please read through this whole post. I'll try to keep it as simple as possible but hold through to the end.

Is 9 to young? Yes and no.

I've been fortunate in my 30 years on this planet to have traveled been exposed to some cultures, and having lived in other countries for extended periods of time, I want to share so world views I have.

First from a gamer side. I do not think it is a good idea to put a nine year old with older people playing an MMO (if supervised this doesn't apply) un-supervised. There are as some have stated very colourful people on the internet that will not tolerate a 9 year old. They won't have the patience or the decency to conduct themselves in a manner suitable for a child. I'm guilty of this and I challenge anyone else to say they wouldn't be guilty as well. On the internet people tend to disassociate themselves with society as such we become someone very different we aren't always conscience of who or what sits on the receiving end of our typing. But I do know tensions could be flared if someone who may be young doesn't understand the finer points of party game play in a group. This is where I would see you having to place a limit on the child'ss interaction with others. Otherwise the rest of the game has been put to a level that I'm sure a 9 year old could grasp just fine.

As a person I think it is important that you first understand what the child really knows. I have found in my travels that children in Scandinavian countries grow up and mature mentally faster than North Americans. This is because of one thing, censorship. Censorship is a **** of a lot more lax there. As such radio and television don't beep out swear words (at least on channels I watched), it isn't uncommon to find nudity (full!) in adverts, in a bus shelter, downtown, at the main station. North Americans live incredibly sheltered lives in comparison to our European roots, and I must say from a personal stand point I found living there much more liberating and less stressful than in North America. I also found that if a person could raise a child in this atmosphere certain other issues could be avoided in a child's development if the parents were proactive enough in the up bringing. That being said I did run into some like bastards that could have used a good smacking. When it comes down to it, it is all based off how much you are going to put into the child's development.

My point here is that if you are going to let the child play be sure your relationship with that child is good enough that you and the child can talk about their experiences without the child feeling ashamed of something they have read. The child will learn what peoples real colours are like. You also have to be sure the child is of a certain level of maturity as well, other wise this will back fire tremendously. Again it is one of those cases where yes you should be supervising them. But exposing a child to these things aren't always a bad thing as long as you are teaching them sound moral rights. I can tell you will almost 100% certainty that this child has likely seen heard and read worse, unless of course this child is home schooled and lives in a plastic bubble where their only access to the outside world is their own yard where they have only seen another child that has been approved by their parents. If the second is the case I'm sorry to say but the child will likely be scared for life if you drop them into this community regardless of supervision, you are better of finding hello kitty adventure island for them.

By the time I was about 7 or 8 I knew just about every swear word imaginable and some in different langauges. I learned these at school on the field from older children. Parents need to remember back to when they were kids and things that they really learned when mom and dad weren't looking or around. I knew as a kid growing up these words weren't nice, but I didn't know why or the meanings behind the words (this landed me in trouble more than once). My word of advice is to talk to the child, learn what they have learned and explain that they wouldn't be in trouble for using them in your conversation. Ask them where they learned the words and how they were being used. Ask the child if they know what the words means and why society considers it bad. Teach them what the words mean and why they are bad, don't wait for the child to be in trouble for saying something they don't even understand because then it will be a lot more difficult. I think the parents that raised children in the 90s and 00's but even some from the 80's (I was born in the early 80's) as well dropped the ball. Video games and television became the new supervisor without parents really understanding what their child was getting out of it. If this child has used the internet unsupervised I'm more than willing to bet they have seen and read things that may or may not shock you. Children aren't as innocent as they seem, where parents need to step up is approaching these children and helping them understand what they are experiencing. Do not shelter the child it is important they understand what the world really is and that the parents aren't always going to be around and that they need to understand that people can be mean. What you need to do is how to deal with those emotions and how they should deal with what they confronted with.

I'm going to end it here before I get lost in big picture. But my hat off to you though for approaching this issue very sensibly. I can only hope you do a better job raising the child than some of those that now populate this world that we share.

Even worse on Ultros (4chan server). Tons of talk about Lalafell **** and animal **** in /shout. Plus the "epic trolling".

Seriously,stop it. I played phase 3 and phase 4 on Ultros. It was a very friendly, helpful community and not once did I see talk of what you mentioned above. I've ignored most of your posts, but you need to stop making sh*t up and giving people a false impression of our community. It's rude and extremely disrespectful to those of us on Ultros.

I was approached by my roommate today about how her daughter mentioned me playing FFXI the past few days as well as XIV during the beta. She is a 9 year old slightly-more-than-casual-gamer-as-long-as-she-is-playing-with-someone type of girl. My instant reaction was that XI would be a bit much for her. XI was designed and built for the older Everquest-era of MMO and while she may enjoy randomly slaying things, actual toon development and game progression she may not like as much. My roommate mentioned that her daughter, who for all intents and purposes might as well be my daughter, liked me playing XIV on the TV and liked how it looked very LotR movie-esque when I was fighting. In considering this, I thought that XIV would lend a little better to her as it's questing and overall accessibility was a bit more in line with someone her age.

This is all coming from someone who can't really tell you when the last time I was 9. What do you younger folk and new parents think? How is 9 years old for XIV? XI? Do kids that young play these games? Any suggestions if the consensus is to introduce her to it? Should I not for fear of it being too complicated?

To me it's a really simple game. Then again I've been playing FFXI for ages. Anything seems easy.

Heres an Idea how about you try to find a way were you can have kids around your daughters age play with. Maybe some of the fellow peers in this community will join and give there child lets an hr or 2 whatever and let them game to together set rules. All that. Allow them to be social and make friends as well.